All language subtitles for S02E04_Dirty Gold.English (CC)

[girl in Spanish] Beaches.

Vacation.

Escape.

They always say, "Come to Miami."

"Explore Miami."

But what if I told you
about the other side?

You may have heard about the drugs...

but what about the gold?

Money laundering.

Sex trafficking.

Murder.

All because of that pretty metal...

Gold.

["Lie, Cheat, Steal"
by Run the Jewels plays]

♪ Lie, cheat, steal, kill, win, win ♪

♪ Everybody doin' it ♪

♪ Lie, cheat, steal, kill, win, win ♪

♪ Everybody doin' it ♪

♪ Lie, cheat, steal, kill, win ♪

[girl in Spanish] Gold.

It's everywhere.

In everything.

Man's fascination and quest for gold
is timeless.

But what is gold, really?

And where does it really come from?

Do you even want to know?

[man] Here you have
Miami International Airport.

Two, three planes
come from Latin America daily...

filled with tons of gold.

Thirty-five billion dollars
in the last ten years.

And from those doors,

probably around 10:00 in the morning
most of the days, you have all the...

trucks carrying all the gold
off to the refineries.

And most of the gold is all blood gold

that is being illegally mined
from the jungle in Peru or Venezuela,

which has a huge impact
in the environment,

and communities that are very vulnerable.

But nobody cares.

As long as the money is flowing,

the business continues.

I was the Secretary of Finance
for the city of Bogota,

and we were trying to prove
that gold has become

one of the main instruments
in the laundering

of the drug dealers' proceeds from the US.

We began to look
at the complete gold supply chain,

and the flow of money that is-- that was
coming back from the US was enormous.

When we realized we had in our hands
a big money laundering scheme,

we began trying to ask for help
from the US agencies.

But getting the US moving forward
is very difficult.

And that's when
the Attorney General of Colombia

mentions to me
that some powerful criminals were...

asking for contributions

to come up with $3 million to organize

an attempt on my life.

And they had already killed some people
that work for me.

So, I've been here since.

[man] Some people like to fill the cooler
and catch as many fish as they can.

I like to figure out

what is the smartest way
to catch the biggest fish...

even if you only catch one.

In 2015, I'm...

34,

35 years old.

I was just a rookie
who had never done a big case,

I'm what's considered
a baby Assistant US Attorney.

A lot of agencies,
the FBI, HSI, DEA in Peru,

have been seeing this suspicious activity
involving large, large amounts of gold

being exported to Miami.

The agents and I decided
that we were going to build a case

just looking at data.

Excel spreadsheets that were
tens of thousands of lines long.

There were times I wondered...

"Were we crazy?
Were we ever going to make the case?

Will I have wasted
two critical years of my life

and the time and trust of...

a lot of agents and agencies?"

It was scary sometimes.

We began to realize that there's
billions of dollars

of something criminal going on,

touching everyone and everything
involved in gold.

And the scheme spans a hemisphere.

So, we knew it was happening,
the gold smuggling

and the gold money laundering,
and we knew the scale

it was happening on.

What we didn't know...

was how we were gonna prove it.

[man] Yo. I'm about to pull up.

[girl in Spanish] The story starts

with a simple drug sale in the US.

-What's up?
-It's good.

There is a big appetite for drugs.

[Maderal] If you're a drug dealer
and you had a million dollars cash,

you have a problem,

because the US has become pretty good

at preventing people
from using dirty money.

The drug business has changed
from the times of Pablo Escobar

where the drug dealers were
the notorious members of the business.

That has evolved.

Now the money launderers are probably
the ones that make most of the money.

Imagine you have tons of fives,
tens and twenties in the US,

of all the cocaine that has been sold
in the streets of Miami and New York.

You have this big problem.

You have cash in the US
of all the drugs that have been sold.

And you need to bring all the cash
back to Latin America

to continue the production
of the murderer's drug business.

[Maderal] So, this is Latin America.

Cocaine begins its life

shipped by smugglers to Mexico...

where it's then distributed
by more smugglers

into various points in the United States.

Street-level dealers sell the cocaine,

bag men collect that cash.

This cash is then consolidated,

let's say, a hundred million dollars,
in Miami in cash.

This is the fruits
of the narcotics trafficking,

but they can't spend it.

You can't buy a yacht cash,
you can't buy a jet cash,

you need to turn this into a bank account.

The problem is, if you try and go directly

to a bank, not only will the bank
not take your money,

but they'll likely report you to the FBI,
the DEA, whoever.

So what you need is a way
to turn this hundred million dollars

into something legitimate
that you can use.

So the first step is they get smugglers
to bring the bulk cash down to Peru...

and they buy a hundred million dollars'
worth of illegal gold.

And now they have a box
of illegally mined gold.

Now, once they have this gold,
they open up...

a front company in Peru.

They just make up names,
so let's call this front company

World Gold Trader.

So now, World Gold Trader

owns a hundred million dollars
of gold purchased with drug money.

It gets on the phone
and calls a US refinery...

in Miami.

This refinery is in the business
of buying gold from Peru.

All they want to do is buy gold.

They need volumes of gold.
That's how they make money.

They ask World Gold Trader,
"Where did you get this gold?"

And the people
running the front company say,

"We dug it out of the ground,"

and the US refinery
asks no more questions.

Now, the hundred million dollars of gold
is delivered to the US refinery

and the US refinery pays
for that hundred million dollars in gold

with a hundred million dollar
wire transfer to a bank.

Now, the drug dealer
took his hundred million dollars of cash

and has ended up with
one hundred million dollars in the bank.

The bank doesn't ask any questions
because they see it came

from the sale of gold
that was mined in Peru.

Cocaine. Cash.

Gold.

Bank.

Laundered money.

That is illegal gold money laundering.

[girl in Spanish]
Welcome to my home, Peru.

I've heard
that two-thirds of my country...

is covered in Amazon rain forest.

Over thousands of years,
the gold flows downstream from the Andes.

And then they find it in the river beds.

They say Peru has the most gold
in all of South America.

I think that's why many people
come here now...

for the gold.

[man in Spanish] It's not simple.

Almost a quarter of Peru's population
lives in real poverty.

There is enough gold in Peru to end this
and develop our entire country,

but Peruvians never see this money.

The La Pampa region is like no-man's land.

It's the heart of Peru's illegal mining.

I'm returning to film the miners
and mine owners.

I expect some won't be happy
with me coming.

[woman] Get out!

Why do you keep coming?
Get the hell out of here!

Why do you keep coming?

Go!

[dog barking]

[man] They think my reporting
will take away their jobs.

But they don't understand
that my intention

is to help them live a better life.

[Spanish song playing faintly on radio]

[man] The drug cartels and mafia
control many parts of this region.

Simply put,
who comes in and out of the area.

If you don't pay them, they will hurt you.

La Pampa
is the edge of the National Reserve,

where gold mining is prohibited.

The gold that people extract here
is illegal.

It can't be commercialized.
There are laws in our country

that prohibit this gold from being sold.

Regardless, it's where thousands
and thousands of people

came from the Andes
in search of better opportunities.

And with that came the bars,
the prostitution

and organized crime.

In some places, drug cartels
and criminal groups operate these mines.

And in other places,
they extort independent miners.

Starting in the year 2017,

information was coming out
that people

were disappearing from La Pampa.

Coming up, we're going to show
the footage that we were able to get

when we entered La Pampa,

where you can't record. No one can.

This is definitely
a very complicated place

of intense mining activity.

Each month,

this dangerous work generates
hundreds of millions in gold sales

for criminal organizations
who use the gold

to launder dirty drug money.

Okay, we've reached the end
of the program.

I am Manuel Calloquispe.
This is The Face of the Village.

We'll see you on Monday. Bye!

[girl in Spanish] Miles and miles
of rain forest are cut down

as the miners look for gold.

Each week, they reach deeper
into the Amazon for richer soil.

[faint rhythmic hacking]

[girl in Spanish]
The miners work very hard to sift the mud

and find the gold.

Wait.

[engine turns over]

They scoop up the mud
and feed it to the machine.

The tiny gold hides in the carpet.

[miner in Spanish] What the mercury does
is act like a magnet

that absorbs only the gold...

until all the gold particles
stick together.

So when you do this process,
it's easier to get the gold out.

[girl in Spanish] Mercury will damage
your sight, memory and organs.

[interviewer] Are you at all concerned
about exposure to mercury in this process?

[miner in Spanish] I know the mercury
can kill you in the long run.

So, we are exposed a bit.

Even more so
without taking real precautions...

to keep you safe.

A lot of people say,
"You'll make good money working in gold,"

and it's not true.

Daily, it's $15 to $18.

Truth is, that doesn't come out to a lot.

[rhythmic hacking]

[in Spanish]
Formalizing a mine is complicated.

We can't do it.

As small-time miners,
we can't meet the requirements.

The state asks
for a huge number of requirements.

You have to reassemble the ground
with machines.

You have to reforest the area.

It is impossible.

The workers are from here,

so they work to support their families,
to survive.

That's why you have to work.

It's difficult and risky.

There's a lot of corruption.

Organized criminals will ask for tax.

You have to pay the tax
in order to keep working,

so you can keep going in peace, you know?
If not...

they don't just threaten you,
they kill you.

[man 1 in Spanish] I've worked
about five years in the transfer of gold

at almost every illegal mine in Peru.

Almost all of Peru is full of gold.

A gram costs $39.

And if we're talking about a kilo,
we're talking about a very large amount.

[man 2 chattering in Spanish]

[man 1 in Spanish] Gold can generate money
and a lot of problems.

When you're transporting the gold,

people will kill each other.

[engine starts]

And I know that at some point,
I'm gonna have to quit.

But...

that's what my family depends on.

It's up to me to feed my family,
my children.

[man in Spanish]
How much are you paying for a gram?

[woman in Spanish] One hundred-ninety.

[rock music playing]

[man in Spanish]
We carry the gold in the chassis.

Or else, in the horn.

It's very dangerous.

The people coming to intercept us
are coming to kill us.

[woman in Spanish]
There's a lot of prostitution.

Sometimes they'll attack you.
Stab you with a knife...

I came because I said,
"I'm going to try my luck,"

like anyone else.

For my son.

In order to give him a better future.

But you can't escape.

Why? Because they will kill you
and dispose of you.

To get to the United States,
or wherever else is buying Peruvian gold,

it goes through a lot of things.

It goes through a lot of deaths.

By many sacrifices from many people
who lie in this gold...

so that gold can be taken
to another country

without knowing the risk
of how that gold arrives.

Everybody's scared.

[indistinct chatter in Spanish]

[indistinct chatter in Spanish]

[Calloquispe in Spanish] I'm ready.

Three, two, one, go!

Hello, good evening.
I am Manuel Calloquispe

and this is The Face of the Village.

The miners from La Pampa
face many types of threats

and security people
can control the miners with violence.

Recently, John Anderson Garcia Mamani
disappeared in La Pampa.

He was mistaken for an informant
in La Pampa, and they killed him.

Five mass graves have been found
in the La Pampa area.

[Spanish song playing,
overlapping TV broadcast]

[song continues, drowning out TV]

[chatting indistinctly]

Which one? That one? Okay.

Going back to 2007,

the movements of gold
just didn't make sense.

People coming out of the woodworks.

Passengers just showing up
at the airport with gold.

No... no discernible reason why
they'd have a bag full of gold.

The theory right away was
that it was narcotics-related,

because what generates
that much proceeds?

We just noticed a lot of unusual
importation activity in Miami, Florida.

A lot of red flags.

We could see the narco element down south.

You had the middlemen,
you know, the brokers,

all the way up to the customer reps
and the refineries.

That's when we said,
"The refinery's involved in this."

[Maderal] We were starting
to get a lot of investigatory leads

from law enforcement agencies
into the gold industry.

At some point,
a confidential source tells us

that gold had become

a favored method

for large-scale narco traffickers
to launder their cash,

and then we started to really look
at the Customs records...

and the way that billions of dollars
in exports seem to be shifting

from one country in Latin America
to another one,

year by year in response...

to efforts by those countries
to stop illegal gold mining.

And seeing that the amount of gold
being exported attributable

to this suspicious activity--
It wasn't some small part,

it was, in some countries,
almost all of the country's exports.

Billions of dollars.

[Ortega] We were looking
at what were the main exports.

All of a sudden, gold became
the major source of foreign currency

for Colombia.

Not coffee,
as it has always been, nor oil.

It was gold, and when I look at the data,

it grew from 12 tons to 70 tons a year.

When we were pushing forward
this investigation,

we were hoping the US
would begin investigating on their end

because anybody that tries
to allow the world to know

what is really happening gets murdered.

It became pretty clear
that there is a huge...

part of this industry that is criminal,

including many refineries
that were in the industry.

We decided to focus on NTR
because of evidence

that was readily available to us.

[girl in Spanish]
These big gold companies in Miami

melt all the different
pieces of gold together.

The heat makes the gold
look perfect and clean.

[man]
NTR was one of the many gold companies

and refineries based in Miami, but...

we became the largest
domestically owned...

supplier of gold, silver,
platinum, palladium...

across America...

totally.

And that was fueled by South America.

When we looked at NTR,

we saw something pretty incredible.

In 2012, they exported about...

$80 million worth of gold from Peru,

but by 2013,

that number had jumped up...

to almost one billion.

And we asked ourselves...

"Why?"

The head of NTR said,

"Go down there and source
every ounce of gold

out of Latin America you could get."

That was the task.

And that is what was accomplished.

It was the wildest ride...

that...

I've ever seen.

We were on the jet twice a month.

Peru, Colombia, Bolivia, Ecuador, Chile,

wherever there was gold.

My job was getting the customers paid
as promptly as possible.

And in the beginning,
it was all about Peru.

Humongous amount of gold out of Peru.

What drove that

was the pressure to produce.

The story of gold money laundering,

through NTR, begins with Peter Ferrari.

Peter Ferrari was widely known

as a narcotics trafficking
money launderer in Peru.

[man in Spanish] This man that dances
to the rhythm of Stevie Wonder

is Pedro David Perez Miranda,

or Peter Ferrari.

Peter Ferrari,
the man who wants to be a playboy,

the talk of the town.

[Maderal]
Peter Ferrari was kind of the most obvious

and incredibly suspicious character.

Dealing in smuggled gold,

large, large amounts of gold.

His gold was illegally mined.

He had no paperwork,

he had to bribe Customs
to export his gold,

and he found in the NTR salespeople
three individuals,

Juan Granda, Samer Barrage,
and Renato Rodriguez,

who were ready and willing to accept gold
from pretty much any source.

and it was a...

perfect match.

[interviewer] Were the other three guys
on the team aware

they were dealing with narco-traffickers?

In the beginning, no.

I know that for a fact.

[interviewer]
You're saying they weren't aware

of these high-profile criminals
like Peter Ferrari.

The money, the drugs,

all the shell companies
didn't raise some concern?

I-- Initially,

I think the--

the--

the naivete was...

high.

I-- I truly do.

But as it went on
and as the volumes grew, yes.

Of course.

[Maderal] There's a federal law
called the Bank Secrecy Act.

It's a good law,

and it's designed
to stop money laundering.

Precious metals dealers,
under the Bank Secrecy Act,

are supposed to not take gold...

without subjecting them
to some anti-money laundering screening.

We can see that...

they're front companies,
clearly apparent front companies,

pumping $200 million of gold
for several months, disappearing.

Same owners open up a new company,

do another hundred and something
million dollars.

The same owners disappear,
that company...

open up another one,
do another hundred million dollars.

There's no legitimate business reason
to do that.

[interviewer] The majority
of Peter Ferrari's shell companies

would only be open months at a time
and then they would shut down.

Exactly.

Was that ever suspicious to you

that you were buying
tens of millions of dollars of gold

from a company that only had
a three or four-month history?

-No, they would--
-What would their answer be?

They would supply

their documentation

and say, "We lost our banking relationship
with HSBC.

We had to change our names."

So what we did...

submit it to our compliance,

they went through the whole thing,

interviewed them,
and then it was approved.

They turn down a ton.
They turn down a ton.

-But they approved even more?
-Yes. Yeah.

[Maderal]
What they were doing was simply asking

the gold suppliers down in Latin America:

"Are you a money launderer?"
And they would say no.

And then they would annotate that
in their file

and say
that they had done their diligence.

This type of ridiculous...

junk document

is what helped us not only build the case

against the NTR sales people
for money laundering,

but also against NTR
and its parent company Elemetal

for failure to comply

with the anti-money
laundering requirements.

For years, they had used our own paperwork
against us to legitimize the process,

and so where we decided to look
was dive deeper in the actual scheme...

of bringing goods into the country.

The way they declare,
they use the paperwork,

they look like they're doing
what they're supposed to be,

because when you're
a trade-based money launderer,

you're hiding in plain sight.

[Maderal]
And this graph is from the Customs data,

and what it's showing you is
the amount of gold

that NTR was importing from Peru

versus Ecuador and Bolivia.

First of all,

NTR started operating in Peru in 2012,

and it only imported

about $80 million worth of gold
in 2012, which is a lot of money.

And what's shocking
is that the very next year,

2013, it jumps from one year to the next

by basically a billion dollars,

when they had done
80 million the year before.

It was shocking.

And after 2013, Peru cracked down
on illegal gold mining,

and NTR's business in Peru dropped...

from the billion-dollar figure back
almost all the way down

to around a hundred million dollars.

And so, we thought to ourselves,

"What happened in the countries
that bordered Peru?"

When Peru closed its borders,

and the exports out of Peru
sank back down to almost nothing,

NTR's imports
from the neighboring countries jumped.

Well, it was pretty clear to us
when we saw it.

They were buying Peruvian gold
that was being smuggled out of Peru

into Ecuador and Bolivia.

Based on what we can see,
this is incredibly suspicious.

Almost certainly money laundering.
NTR can see the same thing we can see.

They were filing the reports.

It was their information
that we were looking at.

And if we're both looking
at the same thing

and I'm seeing
a money laundering transaction,

the question is, well, how come
your anti-money-laundering department

isn't seeing
a money laundering transaction?

Because they made so much damn money.

Everyone was going balls to the wall

to get all the gold out of there.

Everyone was incentivized, compensated.

It was a race to be the best
and get every ounce of gold

out of Latin America as possible.

And that's...

where they got caught up.

[Salisbury]
What is important to point out

is just how easy it was to do.

So you had three individuals
working for one refinery

that were able to launder
over 3 billion dollars' worth of gold.

That's just three individuals.

So that's... three individuals,
by themselves,

were able to move and trade-based
money launder over three billion.

That is astounding to me,
that so few could move so much.

[Maderal]
One of the next big breaks in the case is

we actually obtained WhatsApp messages
for some of the NTR sales people.

Juan Granda says to Renato Rodriguez,

"Just landed in Puerto. 93 degrees."

That means Puerto Maldonado,

which is one of the epicenters
of illegal gold in Peru.

Rodriguez says, "Stay safe,"

and Granda says, "I'm like Pablo..."

[Salisbury]
"...coming to Ecuador to get the coke."

Right there, I mean, that tells you

there is an implication
of something illicit going on around this.

You know, they are joking about
being like Pablo Escobar getting coke.

This-- the coke being gold, it's illegal,
we're moving it, stuff like that.

That's not what puts it over the edge,

but obviously, when you're starting
to look at stuff like this,

it seems very casual,
and again, the red flags start going off.

Juan would say that
if he was going to Exxon to buy Snickers.

That doesn't mean anything.

[Maderal] Then Granda goes on to say,
"I have person's one material

routed to the priests."

And, when he says material,
that means gold.

And Rodriguez asks,

"So person one is buying as company one

and exporting through trade
as what exporter? San Fidel?"

They're talking there about a person
who has material, gold,

and how it's routed...

and they're acknowledging there

that... the companies
that they're buying from are just shells.

And then, a couple of months later,
Barrage says,

"Peru is number one in drug exports
and illegal mining exports.

We need more Peruvian gold
from Bolivia and Ecuador."

That's illegal gold.

They're talking about buying illegal gold.

It's what prosecutors always want.

It's evidence of consciousness of guilt.

The whole thing is liquidity
and the speed of payment.

You can send us
$800,000 worth of gold.

We'd pay you 750 in 10 seconds.

-[interviewer] Was this--
-That'd be in your bank.

[interviewer]
Was this clean or dirty gold?

It was clean until it was dirty.

[interviewer] What does that mean?

It was never questioned until...

they started questioning
where the gold came from.

About a month later, he goes on another...

rant, bragging with his friends,

"Remember when I was in Bolivia and I said

I know someone that can get
a $700 kilo of coke?

Well, I helped him move to Cuzco
and get a million dollars over the border.

Only thing is that on Friday,

my customer from Cuzco
put a hit on him for some bad business."

A lot of, like, the...

"Oh, I got some guy
who's going to murder somebody."

Like, they don't know anybody
who's going to murder somebody.

Maybe they do, but...

they are not involved in that, trust me.

I can promise you that.

A hundred percent.
They are not that sophisticated...

and they are terrified of guns.

[girl in Spanish]
It seems like every week

there is more scary news.

[in Spanish]

[girl in Spanish] People are upset
but don't know what to do.

[equipment beeps]

[in Spanish] He died on...

July 7th,

2018.

This is one of the citizens
who was killed by

the miners in charge of their territory.

He's just one of the many
who've disappeared in La Pampa,

but his body is buried here now
in the ground.

The cross is here to show

that he died or was murdered in this area.

This is how I register the numbers,

to know how many people have been killed,
cremated or disappeared

here in La Pampa region.

[interviewer]
Why would you agree to speak to us

about something so dangerous?

[in Spanish] I've decided to go public
and talk about this because...

I've lost a lot of friends
in the movement of gold,

and because of all the pollution
it creates.

Behind the gold smuggling in Peru
are the politicians.

There are a lot of illegal mines out there
that are actually owned by politicians.

Many times, there's been attacks...

where the authorities
are the ones stealing from you.

[Maderal]
I knew what NTR was doing was wrong.

I knew what they were doing
needed to be prosecuted...

but what's the crime I can charge here
based on the evidence I have?

This is the Title 18,
the federal criminal codes book.

I literally just opened it up one day,
turned to section one...

and I just started
flipping through the pages...

trying to figure out
what I could charge directly...

what conspiracies I could charge.

What could be the proceeds
for money laundering?

[Renaudin] This is how the gold
would arrive in Miami from Latin America.

We would melt it.

And by that time,
the provenance of the gold

was... was undetectable.

[Maderal]
I developed theories for weeks.

And then I'd come up
with the reasons of why that didn't work,

or some element of the crime
that was gonna be too difficult to prove.

Every shipment
that we had come through Miami

was cleared by the US Customs,

and within 24 hours,

it was out the door, ready to go

to any of the top purchasers
of precious metals.

Everything from automobile companies
to Apple cell phones, Tiffany, Cartier,

Rolex, the US Mint.

It was, you know, it was non-traceable...

Um...

once everything was mixed together
or melted together.

[Maderal]
I flipped through Title 18 continuously...

and then I found 18 USC 1956,

which is
a not-too-frequently used subsection

of the money laundering statute.

[Renaudin]
The shocking thing for me is that

we were doing everything by the book,

right there in front of the government,
hands open,

and nothing, you know,
nothing was ever questioned.

But over time the greed got a hold
of many of us.

[Maderal] I almost fell over
because I thought to myself,

"Wait a minute,
we don't need to prove

where the gold came from,
which is basically impossible.

All I have to prove is that
when I send you the $100-million wire

to pay for that gold,

knowing that you're a drug trafficker,
I'm promoting it."

And that's also a crime.
It's not the same crime...

it's a different crime, but it's a crime.

[in Spanish] Some big news.

Three executives
from Miami-based gold refinery NTR

were arrested for smuggling $3.6 billion

in dirty gold from South America,
predominantly from our mines here in Peru.

Prosecutors say the men

falsified paperwork

and circumvented their own
anti-money-laundering compliance programs

by buying gold
from drug trafficker Peter Ferrari.

[Renaudin]
Got a call from a special agent in the FBI

in downtown Miami wanting me
to, uh, to come, have an interview.

I didn't really have
a lot of fear for myself,

because I was never involved

in the decisions of whether to approve

or deny
any of the gold dealers in South America.

And I was not working there
at the time,

because I, um...

I was in rehab.

[echoing]
Every day, going into the office...

Get as much gold as possible.

What's your volume?

Having the head of NTR
be like, "What's this?"

The pressure to perform, perform, perform.

We would have ten, 12 cocktails.

The addiction was always there.
The drinking just went through the roof.

I'm not going to lie to you.

What I had been a part of...
it's horrific.

After that came, you know,
suicide attempts and that kind of stuff.

That's when I went away to rehab.

[girl in Spanish]
A necessary end to things

comes when it is most needed.

[Calloquispe in Spanish]
I no longer have fear.

I'm past it.

I can't let anything
get in the way of finding the truth...

and telling it to the people.

The gold companies
and consumers of the world need to know.

Our people must not bleed for your gold.

[Ortega] Illegal mining is destroying...

people's lives...

and for some reason there is not the will

to put a stop
to this carousel of pain and suffering.

The destruction of the jungle
and nature has been tremendous.

Ah, mercury is...

in the rivers at incredibly high levels,

and is gonna be causing...

suffering for many, many years.

All the children
that are eating those fish

are going to be suffering...

mental challenges and underdevelopment

for the rest of their lives.

To this day, the refineries in Miami

continue in the business
with illegal mining,

and probably the perception
is that nothing will happen.

This is Republic Metals.

Republic Metals went bankrupt

before it was ever investigated fully
and brought to justice.

We need more public information
on all these companies,

because to this day,

there are many refineries
buying dirty gold.

They knew they were buying dirty gold

for over...

ten years...

and they are still

incredibly wealthy and still scot-free.

And it's just a way for people to make

dirty blood money.

[interviewer] Go through this. This is
the list of acceptable gold hallmarks

or gold sources by the US Mint.

Yeah.

[interviewer] This is the list of approved
sellers of gold to the US Mint.

These are all the companies
the Mint has accepted gold from.

What does this list say
about the gold supply

that's been going into our federal vaults?

Asahi--

Salt Lake, I don't know.

Metalor, I can tell you it's not good.

Republic is terrible.

Royal Canadian Mint,
I would like to think it's good.

Englehard, not good.

Handy & Harman, they got in trouble.

And Johnson Matthey,
I know they're in trouble. So, yeah.

I'd say 80% of it is...

bad.

The US Mint, like every citizen,
is assuming these major companies

are doing their due diligence

and following
their anti-money-laundering practices.

And when you don't,
that's when investigations happen,

people get arrested,
seizures and that sort of thing.

Eighty percent of these companies...

if they're sourcing gold
from Latin America or from Europe...

then their gold is tainted.

And they're selling to the US Mint.

[interviewer]
What do you think when you see this list

of approved gold sources?

I'm familiar with several of them.

Because some might be under investigation?

I really can't comment.

[interviewer] Was NTR selling dirty gold
to the US Mint?

They delivered blanks.

A blank is a coin
with nothing on it.

It's just like a--
just like a coin that's flat.

So yes, the blanks...

uh, that they sent up there?
Yeah, probably dirty gold.

[interviewer] The majority
of NTR's gold supply

has to be coming from South America.

And how much
of that South American supply is illicit?

-Off the record?
-[interviewer] On the record.

Hundred percent.

[interviewer] Hundred percent
of your South American gold

you would consider...

-dirty?
-[interviewer] Illegal.

Not illegal. Dirty.

I mean, I don't know what the--
I don't know the legalities, but yeah.

Well, it's dirty because
it's illegally mined and trafficked.

Yeah.

[Maderal]
This case was groundbreaking.

I think it put...

an industry on notice.

It put the population on notice
to a problem

that maybe they hadn't paid attention to.

[interviewer] Do you question
if the case created

enough change in the gold industry?

No.

I'm proud of what the team did.

Do I wish
I could have done more? Absolutely.

Will the next prosecutor,
team of agents, do a better job?

I hope so.

There's a lot more prosecutions

that could be brought.

Not necessarily even related to this case,
but in the gold industry in general.

I think this is the problem.

"Everyone else is doing it"
doesn't make it legit.

It makes it commonplace.

And people are getting
a false sense of security.

Well, if this was a crime,
all these guys would have been prosecuted.

This plays into the common
white-collar mindset,

which is one of self-delusion.

It's just these...

incremental decisions to do more,

to risk more,
that add up over time.

When you put all those things together,
it creates the perfect storm.

And so, did they believe those things?

Maybe they did.

That doesn't make it not a crime.

[Renaudin] Yeah, the stress of everything
that I went through...

it certainly led to...

you know, a decline in my mental health,

severe alcoholism and...

you know,
the destruction of my marriage and...

what I'm most, uh...

most sorry for.

Just to think about the symbol

of my marriage

was a beautiful, beautiful, beautiful
gold ring that I selected.

Cartier was... was a customer of ours,
and that was a Cartier ring.

So, if we supplied gold for that ring,
it would be dirty gold.

Yet, it's worth--

It came full circle.

[Ortega]
Even though I left Colombia,

I've been trying to continue
to shine light

on these people that are moving
dirty money across the continent.

But gaining the trust of the US agencies

has been a very slow process. Many years.

I care...

because, as a Colombian,

I have to deal with our reputation
and with the Narcos movies

and everybody knowing and even celebrating
criminals like Pablo Escobar.

[man on TV] Pablo!

And they don't even know
about all the Colombians that have...

lost their lives and their livelihood,

because they have tried to put a stop

to all the networks of criminals

that allowed for the cycle to continue.

[girl in Spanish]
You don't know me. And why should you?

I'm just the idea of a young girl
you've never met...

whose father will work in the mines
for years, taking out the gold.

Ounce by ounce.

Month by month.

My family might get hurt one day...

but you won't have to see that.

Some of them may disappear
in the mines one day...

but there will always be gold.